#As for if I design Sonic Fan Characters ? I haven't since I was like ... 10 haha . So No idea what I'd do There

[kiwipineappleparasol]

On one of your redesign post for the archie characters you said "for my no overhaul outfit rules" what are your rules for sonic character design? I'm curious

The rule I like to follow for design tweaks in my AU is that none of the Mobian characters wear full outfits (like ones expected of Humans 🧍) This applies Almost Exclusively to the female characters of course -- because I find the restriction that the female Mobians must be fully clothed when clearly it isn't a requirement for the male ones a Little Strange in the series . They're just little animal creatures after all . Not that I have problems with their original designs (most of the time) but it's a fun challenge when trying to redesign them for an AU

Oh, and I suppose I give them all Shoes and Gloves if they didn't originally have any . For some reason they feel so Odd without them on haha

Outside of That I mean . I just do whatever I find Interesting :p (while still trying to keep them Recognizable if I deviate very Far)

[butch-bakugo]

Im so glad we all rightly clocked the Minecraft movie as probably going to suck and I'm not alone. I was so worried I was just being a pessimist but after seeing what other's have said and what moistcritickal posted (haven't watched it yet), I feel a bit safer sharing my opinion. So, as a mc fan and player for almost, if not exactly, 10 years, I'll give my opinion.

It wants to be the super Mario movie. It wants to be it SO BAD but it doesn't care to actually commit to it. So many awesome movies about gaming IP have come out over the last 5 years from the Mario movie and the fnaf movie to detective pikachu and sonic. All bangers. Idk what it is apparently about 2024 and letting the most sludgy shitty gaming movies being announced/coming out but this is... Not it. This and the borderlands movie (tbf I'm only repeating popular opinion as I haven't seen the movie and am not a fan of the franchise but mega and even casual fans plus it's horrific box office say it enough. ) are probably gonna end up the same.

It looks terrible. Period. Almost everything in it looks terrible and I garentee it's budget was 150 to 300 mil and it still looks like fucking garbage. It can't even commit to being a live action or animated movie. It wants to be both so bad and not lose the recognition of the 2 celebrities it dumped probably a quarter of the budget on. Everything from the mobs to the world design to the cgi already looks like fucking garbage. It looks so fucking bad y'all I'm not even exaggerating. Holy shit. Everything has that fuckin cursed style of realistic components but cartoonish attitude and shape. Everything in the trailer looks like jigglypuff or Mr. Mime from detective Pikachu bred with sonic before everyone bullied them into giving him justice.

Tell me this shit doesn't have the same fucking energy.

This isn't cute, it was never cute, it's fucking creepy to put hi-def details on an originally cartoonish characters. Its giving fleshball with hair. Side note, since tf when were creepers made of grass and leaves n shit? I feel like I'd puke if I touched one by accident.

I want to give credit where credit is due and say the piglins and the ghasts look great. I fuckin love the fact the ghasts are stitched at the seems. They look great. It's almost like cartoon proportions but realistic style can look good in its creepy nature when out on top of characters who are supposed to look creepy and not right. 🙄

I have no idea why they wouldn't just fully animate this movie. Why are there fully human live action actors in this bitch but literally everything else is CGI. These poor actors are just standing on green screens when they very literally could have just been live action segments of them popping in and out of the world of Minecraft while voicing their minecrafty looking selves while animated. Literally just give it the ready player one treatment. Also why is Steve, the titular Minecraft character, a live action human as well? Even if your weird fascination with Zionist autism-speaks devotee Jack black is what you paid ungodly money for, he's a good voice actor. He showed that in the Mario movie as Bowser. Why does he have to be not only an IRL human but also his beard nor skin tone match canonical Steve. Jason Momoa, the only moc on the cast of human characters, would match Steve's actual skin tone. The boy's got melanin, Jack does not.

Speaking of the human characters, I can smell the uninteresting cookie-cutter nerdy boy with a crush he needs to profess to protagonist a mile away, I'm sure the little girl character is tough on the outside but soft when she warms up and is quirky and joins the bad guys for a bit only to come back but never has any actual character, idk litterally anything about the adult woman character other than her outfit is giving Dora and she litterally says nothing during the trailer and jason Momoa? I'm alittle worried. First off, why you got this whole ass man in that shitty ass wig. That is party city shit. I could find better for $8 on Amazon. Second off, though I think he's trying to be like... 80s 90s pop star twisted sister style shit, im NGL... My first thought was " is this a transmysognistic caricature?" Because of notch and the fact he moves pretty femininely through the trailer. I won't judge it yet but like... My hackles were UP up. I'm stressed. Another thing of note? No Alex nor Villagers. The villages were there and actively plundered but no villagers.

Something interesting of note is that the villagers were originally made, by notch, to be antisemitic caricatures. That's why they have the big nose, the nasally voice, considered primitive, the specific obsession with emeralds of all gems, why their deals always suck and they come off greedy. Mojang did very little to change their original design and even though you couldn't tell nessesarily without knowing that context that the villagers were a caricature, that doesn't make them less of one and Mojang really should of made the choice to change them by now. I, like many other allies and obviously the Jewish community, always felt a little uncomfortable with them but are now especially nervous about their more realistic but still cartoony take. We've seen plenty of human/realistic but cartoonish takes on villagers fully lean into the caricature with hooked noses, pointed ears and other common ethnicly Jewish features. Some even Include Payots ( the curly pieces of hair worn on orthodox Jewish men), Yamakas and stars of davids. These are clearly antisemitic caricatures and I, and many other fans, are worried about their one screen translations. I can only hope they humanize them as some more realistic takes on villagers can be good.

My second to last note is the setting, holy fuck is it UGLY ugly. Like I dont watch any Minecraft YouTubers or streamers so I'm not accustomed to tracing rays 1,000 mods realistic lighting, realistic resources, needs huge processors to run without the computer becoming the same temp as the surface of the sun to be happy with the way it looks but like... Ew. I play raw mc, no mods on console (and PC at one point but that was awhile ago and also with no mods) and I, through buildings or natural landscapes and locations, etc have seen prettier lighting and locations than what they chose. Like, one of the many joys of Minecraft is the simplistic but natural and real and relaxing atmosphere the world of Minecraft can be. Even when it's raining or snowing. Minecraft sunsets and sunrises after you spent the last real world 56,000 hours on this big building complex and finally resting and watching the sunrise over your work and the mountains or ocean or forest or even desert around you become pink then yellow then bright as the start of a new day is a healing experience. It can be emotional even. That landscape looked like garbage. Incredibly monotonous and boring and plain. Just nothing. How you squeeze the very easy thing of a beautiful atmosphere out of Minecraft is beyond me.

Speaking of emotions, let's talk about the story and the humor/dialogue. I'll start with the later and end my thoughts with the former. The humor, the little we did see, seemed at least a little bit on brand for Minecraft. The animals especially. I'll give it that, I just hope it's not unending poop or fart or pee jokes. Finally, I, like many others, are very worried this is a modern isekai ass Jumanji style shit take of minecraft. We are very worried this is just modern people shoved into minecraft to solve a problem, save the world and leave. This isn't what Minecraft's about, it's not it's messaging nor ever been a " hero/band of heros story" about saving the world, I don't even think it will honor the final poem of the game.

Minecraft has always always ALWAYS been about community, belonging, making a place for yourself in a world that won't accept you, working together and coexisting. It's about peace. It's about sharing. These messages are very near and very dear to the 6 yr old gen alphas who've been playing it since they were 2 or 3 yrs old and beat it 60 times to the elder Gen z and millennials like me who grew up with the game and have a special place in our hearts for the world's we've built and lost to the 89 yr old grandma who played it over covid and built a home for her whole family to visit and live in with all the accommodations they could want. Minecraft is for all ages and everyone has either played it or heard of it, it is the most successful singular game in the world ffs. It has sold more copies than ANY single game in existence, over the most common production of solitaire and Tetris and Space invaders AND any super Mario or Pokemon game. Minecraft rakes in over billions of dollars and millions of players every single year. Those who start playing it struggle to stop. It's a cultural icon, a seriously beloved and wholesome one. One the fans truly took, made it their own for everyone's benefit and spawned so much spin off media and love that it's done better than most games could ever dream to do. Minecraft's success and communal love, despite the unsavory trend of pedo and bigoted YouTubers centered on the game, is its soul. It's driving force. Its succession literally cannot be understated and cannot not be attributed to its fans.

I fear this movie is a slap in the face money grab disrespectful turd in a doggy bag left on the community's porch. I fear this movie will have none of the game's and community's values and lessons and love. I fear this movie will do what Mario, sonic and fnaf did not, hurt it's audience. I, like many other fans, already have an unsavory taste left in our mouth's from this trailer pie and we can only hope it didn't come from American pie or the help. The movie looks fucking soulless. It looks corporate. Like it only exists to make money off the already successful IP that is Minecraft. Like they saw the box office explosive success of sonic and Mario and fnaf and decided to shit something else explosive out as quick as possible to jump on the trend. I fear because it's fucking Hollywood, the messages it holds will be watered down and tasteless like a fucking LaCroix where someone ate a cubic millimeter of an orange peel and shat in my can and called it flavor. It'll be the same old schmut that every kid friendly movie has. It will have no nods to and for its existing fans to comb through and point out and smile that they are seen.

It may not even have a fucking ender dragon or a wither. Will it even have the nether? People already pointed out that most movie trailers include some of the big cool (expensive) parts of the movie and if they eventually fight the ender dragon, they would of probably included that in the trailers due to how cool (expensive) that scene would be. It's not there. All we see is piglins, a relatively small enemy in the game, pillaging villages (why no , ya know, actual pillagers pillaging. Why piglins... Who are barely present in the over world....who dont attack unless provoked... and only attack the player not suddenly aggro with every AI in sight... Why are they attacking villagers suddenly....) which.... Isn't super interesting. That and the irl actors walking around and discovering how to fucking play the basic shit in Minecraft like getting wood.. and making crafting tables.... And talking to Steve. Like this has bad shitty written all fucking over it... I'm so worried.

We, the fans who work and love this game tirelessly, deserve better than isekai diet Jumanji live action meets shitty animated garbage.... I can only hope and pray that my take on this ages poorly. I hope it ages poorly and I'm horribly wrong and it's the next fnaf movie and shows huge amounts of respect for the fans. I want to be wrong. I want us to be respected. However you can't ignore the blood in the handkerchief concerning movies with a highly popular IP, too many a-list celebrities, high costs and piss poor CGI. It rarely doesn't lead to disaster. Please let me be wrong.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Ahoy Steph 🙌, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of tropes and stories you enjoy? Wanna get to know a little more about who is behind the blog if you don't mind🤸

Hey Nonny!

Sorry for the delay in a reply... just haven't "felt it" the past couple months, and after a nice 2 week break (and now a slow day at work), I feel more up to answering a long-form ask today, LOL.

So, I won't reveal too much about myself that isn't already public, since I try to keep my online and personal lives separate (and I come from an age where people usually DID do this because no one needs to know every little bit about you). The basics are that I'm a 41-year-old Canadian dork who loves video games, animation, movies, drawing, writing, and making music. I'm a graphic designer by trade, and have been for nearly 20 years, and I love it (if you need something designed or laid out, hit me up, I freelance on the side for extra spending money). I love dragons and puppies and kitties. I've been in fandom spaces for as long as I can remember, even before the internet. First major fandom I was a part of was Sonic the Hedgehog in my teen years, used to be a pretty popular writer back then. I moved on to Darkwing Duck in my 20s, then TMNT and then Sherlock (I'm a fan of a TONNE more things, but these were the active fanbases I had a presence in). These days I'm more of a lurker than actively participating, though Sherlock has been the longest one I haven't really moved on from. I like the casualness of what I've built here, and I think that's been a huge benefit for my mental health.

Hmm... my fave food is mac and cheese, but had to cut back on it a lot, so these days it's mostly chicken, lol. Fave dessert is cheesecake. Again, not supposed to eat it because of the dairy and sugar, so if I make it, I use lactose-free cheese. I treat myself once-a-year on my birthday, usually.

My current dream is to own a home. I've been trying to make it happen for almost 10 years now, and every time I get close, the goal-post gets shifted as housing prices skyrocket. It makes me very sad.

My dream holiday is a Disney cruise OR somewhere tropical; wanted to do these since I was 20. Secondary dream WAS going back to Disney World for my 40th, but now it's for my 45th or 50th, hopefully with SOMEONE (no one wants to go with me, hence the back-burner on this one). Listen, I know how awful Disney is. I just... really loved being there. It's easy to forget a lot of things when you're there. Third dream is a cross-country LITERAL nostalgia road trip with my sister. We used to go on 2-week-long, cross-Canada road trips when we were kids, and I just... want to kind of relive those, y'know? Lots of fond memories. Again, something that's just a dream because while my sister wants to do it, she doesn't want to be an alternate driver, so. Yeah, I can't do the driving alone.

Uh... Hmm. Not sure what else I should talk about here, if there's something specific y'all want to know, just ask :)

As for fave tropes, I love fake relationship fics the most, I think, followed by pining and movie rewrites with characters... I'm actually pretty easy-going when it comes to tropes, really. Willing to read any trope at least once to see if I like it.

Oddly, though, I prefer stories that are SUPER in-character (to how I read them, anyway) AND focus a lot on character studies and relationships with other characters. Novel-length stories are usually the best for it, but shorter ones can be too. I prefer fanfics more these days because I don't have to think about how these characters SHOULD be and focus more on the world that the author created. When I do read published novels, though, they're usually fantasy books. One of my fave series ever is the Inkheart Trilogy. Just an easy read from book one.

Yeah, so that's a little bit about me, to start off 2023 AND for any newbies that have just recently found me.

Thanks again for your curiosity :) Again, if you have anything you want more elaboration on, I can at my discretion.

[spin-attaxx]

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4. Fav character/subject that’s a bitch to draw

I love Charn, some days I'm surprised I made him, but I won't lie, his elaborate design is why I don't draw him as often as I'd like. Every time I draw him, I question how his lapels should look, or how his eyes would look at varying angles. This isn't to mention the more robotic/mecha-influenced parts of him that I haven't shown off yet.

For subjects, probably action scenes; I admittedly don't draw them a lot, because when I do, I usually find myself dissatisfied for one reason or another. "This pose is too stiff" or "that effect looks bad" or "that background could have been better", etc.

The weapon art for Make a Good Mega Man Level is a bit of both; I try to keep Mega Man accurate to the official Capcom weapon art, but also give each one a distinct pose or angle. Lot of time goes into those, trying to get the lineart, colours etc. just right.

8. What’s an old project idea that you’ve lost interest in

OK this is a bit of a cheat since it's something that was once part of something I very much have not lost interest in, but it's something I still remember even almost 10 years on. Back when I first came up with what would become The Sorceress of the Stars, my overambitious 15 year old self envisioned a game like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with three different playable characters with their own stories and their own supporting cast. These were a kooky old scientist, a robot he made that would gradually become more humanoid over its story, and his grumpy magic-using granddaughter. That last one was just a funny afterthought.

(Incidentally this is how Charn became what he is; he was supposed to embody each of the trio's main aspects.)

I made some old comics with the three; however, after some time I realised that I was struggling for a title, what I was planning was very much unfeasible for one person, and I cared very much about the magic granddaughter's story, the robot's less so, and the scientist's even less than that. So I decided to cut those two and focus entirely on Jessica instead. Perhaps the robot at least may get revived in the future, as part of TSOTS or their own thing.

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

This is a tricky question; I'm not sure I draw a lot of inanimate objects, and the ones I do tend to be stuff I don't think about much (or outright not like drawing). I guess maybe something like clothing and starry night skies count? Let's go with that.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

Many people both online and IRL have told me my art reminds them of Dragon Ball Z. For the longest time, I didn't actually follow it; the most influence I drew from it was basing Jessica's boots on Android 18's. These days I have an appreciation for Toriyama's art (particularly his style around the Piccolo and Saiyan arcs), but it's still not something I consciously try to imitate.

29. Media you love, but doesn’t inspire you artistically

I think the most prominent example that comes to mind might be Seasons 1 and 2 of Star vs the Forces of Evil. I'm typically not a fan of overly-cartoony movement or expressions etc., but that first season somehow managed to make it work, and it was never dull to watch. It's honestly a crying shame that by the final season, the animation, character design, and backgrounds became so flat, stiff, dully coloured and lifeless (I swear every episode the characters do the same Family Guy-esque "bottom eyelids up, hands outstretched" pose).

[the-blind-geisha]

oooh ocs are my jams. Do any of your OCs contain any symbolism in themselves/their story?/Which character has been through the most design changes?/ Which OC do you make art/media with the most? 🖤

They're mine too. XD I love when people talk about their OCs with me.

10. Do any of your OCs contain any symbolism in themselves/their story? Had to really think about this one.. Oreana having the ability to transform into a phoenix was made when I was told many things growing up online: 'I always seemed to attract broken people' (abusive adopted mother's words, not mine), 'I shoulder a lot of peoples' agony, trying not to project or talk of my own'.

A phoenix is meant to shoulder the world's burdens and turmoil before bursting into flames and being reborn again to start the trend all over. Oreana does this a lot during her times through her story--so much so, she often puts others wellbeing far before herself as she sees herself less important.

11. Which character has been through the most design changes? It's a tie between Oreana, Ignatius, and Irie. xD

While I could scan in the old images of Oreana and Irie and hunt for the deviation I put in storage regarding Ignatius' first demonic design, I am hella lazy right now.

Oh wait, found them in my 'crap art folder' I forgot to delete off of my PC

So, this was Irie's rough first design. The reason I swapped her hair coloration was because of the fact a Sonic character I liked had the same look, and I didn't want to be told 'hur hur looks like (blank)' when that's not the case, as Irie was drawn years before that character came out... lol Here's her final design:

Oreana went through a LOT of hair designs just because, as a kid growing up, I saw her as like any breathing person--she could change her hair however she wanted.

Yes...you can tell I was an Ah, My Goddess fan in some of these... lol

A lot of the times, I'd put her with highlights of some sort, but even give her short hair on occasions. She eventually ended up with the regular look she has today--just a brunette, but I highly doubt the thought of her messin' with her hair won't show up again as I continue my story(s) with her.

I would say those are the main two, as Irie later did get a collar at one point in a comic I did in private, but I'm too lazy to scan it. lol

13. Which OC do you make art/media with the most?

Oreana, without a doubt. She has the most out of anybody since I've been drawing her since 1993 and haven't stopped. ♥